Meet Lori Lightfoot’s new affordable housing task force

The 20-member body includes affordable housing advocates, real estate developers and aldermen.

Lori Lightfoot (Credit: Getty Images and iStock)
Lori Lightfoot (Credit: Getty Images and iStock)

Mayor Lori Lightfoot has appointed 20 “industry stakeholders,” most of whom are involved in low-income housing advocacy or nonprofit agencies, to a task force that will review Chicago’s current laws that require some developers to include a certain number of low-rent units in their projects and identify broader steps that may be needed to boost affordable housing.

Beginning in mid-December, the 20-member Inclusionary Housing Task Force will meet once a month for at least four months, with the goal of introducing a revised Affordable Requirements Ordinance by mid-year, Crain’s reported.

“This group of industry stakeholders will be instrumental in ensuring that this vital tool is updated to better address the city’s affordable housing shortage,” Lightfoot said in a statement. The task force “will serve as we strive as a united city that affordable housing options are located throughout Chicago’s 77 communities.”

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

On the advocacy side are task force members Bickerdike Redevelopment Corp. CEO Joy Aruguete, Logan Square Neighborhood Association organizer Christian Diaz and Habitat Affordable Group senior vice president Charlton Hamer Sr. The task force also includes some members of the development community, such as JLL managing director Tom Kirschbraun, Magellan Development Group’s Mowa Li, Cushman & Wakefield managing director Susan Tjarksen and DLA Piper partner Paul Shadle.

The task force’s co-chairs are Juan Sebastian Arias of the Metropolitan Planning Council; Tony Smith of PNC Bank; Stacie Young of Preservation Compact; as well as Ald. Walter Burnett (27th); Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th); and Ald. Harry Osterman (48th).

A group of aldermen, including Sigcho-Lopez, sponsored a proposed change to the Affordable Requirements Ordinance that would triple the required amount of affordable units from 10 to 30 percent in “high-rent zones” and raise it to 20 percent elsewhere. [Crain’s]Brianna Kelly